More eBay items: dcs200s and NC2000e

Discuss older Nikon-based Kodak digital SLRs, including DCS 100, DCS 200, NC2000, DCS 400/600/700-series, etc. Ask questions, post general comments, anecdotes, reviews and user tips.
Ross_Alford
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More eBay items: dcs200s and NC2000e

Post by Ross_Alford »

There are 2 lots of DCS200 backs on eBay, 3 in each lot and the current price is $9.99.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

The same seller sold a lot of 6 a few days ago for the princely sum of $56 and change. I am very tempted but haven't decided whether to bid or not.

In case you missed out on the lot of NC2000e cameras that sold last week, here's another one, and (surprisingly to me) it may not be a resell of one of the lot ones. $79.99 and no bids with 4 days to go at the moment:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

Cheers,
Ross
nik0web
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Location: USA, Pittsburgh

Post by nik0web »

Take a good look at the pix in the 2 lots of 3 DCS200. There's no sensors!!!!
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Ross_Alford
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Post by Ross_Alford »

Actually, now that I take a really good look at those images there is something _really_ odd about them. Compare them to the image of the previous lot sold by the same guy:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kodak-DCS-200-CCD-d ... dZViewItem

The backs in that image look like I would expect them to. In the images for the two lots of three, the hand grip appears to be longer, and the back part is thicker, and the front surface of the back part is perfectly flat, which the front of the back in the image of 6 backs, and certainly the fronts of the 420 and 460 backs I have actually seen, is not. I wonder if the ones in those lots of three actually might have some sort of protective cover type thing attached--they might even be unused/never installed on a camera? At any rate they don't just look like backs that have had the sensors stripped off.

Anyone with more experience than I (that is any at all) with the DCS200 care to comment?
drummond93
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Location: Columbus & Dayton Ohio

Strange DCS 200 backs.. explained

Post by drummond93 »

Actually, that's just the normal DCS 200 back with the protective back cover attached over the sensor area.... the digital back cover-plates came with the original kit (but usually get lost or separated from the units showing up on Ebay.) The cover plates are form-fitted to the digital back, and make a nice cover for the back if you're taking it for some reason (to store, send back in for repair, etc). Teh DCS 4xx series also used a removable back cover... may even be the same, as I think the digital backs had the same form factor between the DCS 200 and DCS 400 series.

I've can take a picture of mine and post later... it's just a piece of injection-molded plastic that fits over the digital back. Nothing too special about it.. but as mentioned, it doesn't show up on Ebay often with the backs as they are usually separated at some point/ lost/ left behind.
nik0web
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Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:34 am
Location: USA, Pittsburgh

Post by nik0web »

Actually, that's just the normal DCS 200 back with the protective back cover attached over the sensor area....

Thanks foe the info. With your able assistance I put in a bid on the second lot. Wish me luck.

John
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Ross_Alford
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Post by Ross_Alford »

Yes, thanks for the info. I will put in a sniping bid for the first lot, but won't bid on the second one, to avoid competing with John.

Ross
cheng2005
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Post by cheng2005 »

did anyone win one of these auctions?
nik0web
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Location: USA, Pittsburgh

Post by nik0web »

I lost one lot at the end. They weren't very popular/valued?

John
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Ross_Alford
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Post by Ross_Alford »

Well, I won one lot (the one John wasn't bidding on). As usual with USA-only items I have had them shipped to my in-laws, who know nothing at all about cameras and can't even tell me what condition they are in, so I won't have any idea what I actually have until October, when I visit them.

I have also bought a complete DCS-200 camera with manuals and charger in a separate auction (in which I think I may have ended up bidding against John; if so, sorry about that. There is another 200 up currently, and it also appears to be pretty complete and even has a lens). Seems like I ought to be able to assemble at least one working camera out of all these bits.

It appears that the next problem will then be talking to the camera. I have SCSI working and talking to a DCS 420 and a 460, but I went and looked at Kodak's web site and although they offer support and software for cameras as far back as the 410, the 200 is not mentioned. Does anyone either know that the DCS TWAIN driver works with the 200, or have any software available that will work with/talk to the 200?

Cheers,
Ross
nik0web
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Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:34 am
Location: USA, Pittsburgh

Post by nik0web »

Ross:

You must be Auto on eBay. I'll try to avoid a conflict in the future.

John
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Ross_Alford
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Post by Ross_Alford »

Hi, yes, when I bid on things that can only go to the USA I am Autograflex; (another collecting interest).

I found that it is possible to download the dcs200 manuals from Kodak, even though it is not mentioned (that I could find) on their support site; in fact it is even possible to download the DCS100 manual. I downloaded it, and found that you don't need a charger to get a DCS200 running--it will take NiCd or NiMH AA rechargeable batteries in a holder. Why on Earth they went backwards with the 400 series to a fixed b attery is a true mystery. So if you're interested in 200s, you do not need to find one with the charger, etc. On the other hand, some apparently do not have the internal hard disk and were meant to only be used tethered, those would probably best be avoided.

The link to how to get the manuals is

http://www.camerahacker.com/Forums/Disp ... nuals.html

in case anyone is interested.

Cheers,
Ross
Ross_Alford
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Post by Ross_Alford »

OK; I now have at least 2 working DCS200 backs, one I bought with a camera, one I bought as part of a batch of 3 backs for $US 12. I have not tested the other 2 in that batch yet. One is missing the battery holder.

They turn on, you can take photos and hear them being written to the hard disk, and the exposure counter on the back changes. After some trial and error, I seem to have managed to get my PC talking to the DCS200 over SCSI; the 200 appears in the system hardware list as a SCSI processor, and the camera stays on without keeping pressing the shutter release partway, which suggests that it knows it is connected to a computer.

However, Kodak DCS Twain 5.9.3.1 does not recognize the 200. It works fine with my DCS420, 460, and NC2000e, but just does not recognize that a camera is attached when the 200 is hooked up. The 200 is not listed as one of the cameras that this version of the TWAIN driver talks to, and looking on Kodak's support site, the 200 does not seem to be mentioned for any of the drivers that are still available.

How do those of you who manage to talk to DCS200s do it? What software do you use?

Thanks,
Ross
Brian Sweeney
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Post by Brian Sweeney »

I have the original TWAIN drivers, circa 1993. I run WIN95B on a Pentium Pro and Photoshop 3.0.

I think Jarle archived the TWAIN driver. If not, Let me know and I will host it and post a link.

I also wrote a .KC2 to BIN convertor. My camera is Monochrome so I did not put an RGB routine into the FORTRAN/ASSEMBLY code. Kodak does not document the file format, but not hard to figure out.
Brian Sweeney
Posts: 86
Joined: Sat May 21, 2005 1:30 pm

Post by Brian Sweeney »

Twain drivers Email out.

Kodak quit hosting these a while ago, I was lucku enough to stumble across them ~2 Years ago. That site is gone as well. I keep these safely on at least four computers. They also contain the final Firmware Rev for the DCS200. I installed these on my camera.

Good Luck!
Ross_Alford
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Post by Ross_Alford »

I thought I would summarize my experience for the benefit of anyone else who is trying to get a DCS200 to communicate with a Windows machine.

Brian kindly emailed the drivers to me. I would be willing to forward them on to others if needed.

I installed them on a Windows 98 machine, where they work fine. I could not resist also trying to install them on a Win XP machine, which simply does not even recognize that anything has been installed.

To get the WIn 98 machine talking to the DCS200, I had to downgrade its ASPI layer from version 2.7.1 (available from Adaptec's web site, the most recent version) to version 2.6 (also available from Adaptec; the last version that works with Windows 95, according to them). With version 2.7.1 installed I kept getting a message saying that the ASPI layer was not initialized, even though the aspicheck utility said it was fine, and other ASPI-dependent things were working.

I also found that calling the TWAIN driver from Photoshop 5.5 (the version installed on the WIn 98 machine) sort-of worked; I could talk to the camera and see thumbnails, but I caused a crash every time I tried to acquire an image. Got around that by not calling the TWAIN module from Photoshop. Instead, I call it from Vuepro 32, an image viewing program I use (available from www.hamrick.com as shareware, and a very nice program). Earlier versions of photoshop, and other image software, may well work fine too. I just import images into Vuepro, save them as TIF files, and copy to my main computer to fiddle in Photoshop CS2.

The upshot is that I found that all 4 of the DCS200 backs I have are working (one bought with a camera and other accessories on eBay, the other 3 bought as backs only as a lot on eBay for $11.96--a decrease in value of about 5000 fold since new). All of them had leftover images on them, too, but nothing particularly exciting. Test photos taken by Army guys. I wonder if these very expensive backs were ever used for anything else? I suspect that the US government bought them for $10K or more each, and they were tested and then sat around until the N8008 bodies were removed for use with film. They don't appear to keep track of total actuations as the later models do, so there is no way of telling for sure. It would have been a very expensive way to buy N8008 cameras.

Interestingly, from the point of view of recent dicsussions about serial numbers, all 4 of the backs I have are in the 7900 to 8100 range. If they were just sequentially numbered starting at 1, then a whole lot of DCS 200s are out there somewhere. Perhaps it would be worth starting a DCS serial number registry, similar to the one for E series? I'd be willing to contribute.

Cheers,
Ross
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